That's my point. The Spanish flu killed 750,000 in the United States at a time when the population was around 100 million. It was certainly a massive crisis.
What was the reporting like and how has it changed?
What was the reporting like and how has it changed?
It's an excellent (sad) example of history repeating itself.
On the other hand, things aren't all that comparable. Consider the distances people travel, the amount of people that use the same space, but also the amount of single-use things we have now that we didn't have (at scale) back then (even simple things like spoons, napkins, cups).
People love to make comparisons, but it's not always as useful or helpful as one might think (even if we went all the way down the rabbit hole and tried to find all the variables between now and then).
Firstly, the medical technologies of 1918 were nothing like what we have today.
For example, even though it would have been no help fighting Spanish Flu, wide spread use of penicillin was still some 20 years, showing just how far behind the medical system of that time really was.
That difference also shows up in things like life expectancy which back then was in the low 50s where as today it is in the 70s.
Finally the two virus are very different.
One factor that made the Spanish Flu virus so deadly was it killed both young and old.
If COVID-19 had the same death profile I suspect we would be seeing those same 750,000 totals.
And this deathcount was for an event that extended for 16 months between 2918 and 1920. We are in the eight month of covid-19 still
1918